Step aside Jeff Francis, because Darren Barefoot might be Canada’s best pitcher.

For those of you who have already put two and two together; yes, I am referring to his ability to pitch in the PR sense of the word. See what I did there, with the baseball reference? Sorry Google, but this post ain’t about baseball.

A few months back I referenced Mr. Barefoot’s pitching abilities when he emailed me about a video campaign he had put together. Later I saw that he was using video to pitch bloggers individually (yes, a separate personalized video for each of his chosen publishers) about a photo contest for one of his clients. Obviously he understands that it takes time and care to connect with bloggers and enlist their help when campaigning. And at the moment, he’s doing it all from a quaint villa in Malta on a working vacation.

Well, now he’s outdone himself yet again. And I’m not just saying that because he’s pitching me. Just moments ago I received an email from Darren asking if I’d like to demo a product for one of his clients, Brother Printers. In addition to a short personal message, the email included this comic strip:

Yes, those are a few of my own Flickr photos in the strip, and yes, I did chuckle aloud when I saw it. Nice work Darren.

And now, as an example of pitches gone horribly wrong, I point you to an item published on Darren’s site, where he touches upon the recent Chris Anderson (of Wired magazine and “the Long Tail” fame) dust-up. Anderson published the email addresses of hundreds of PR “professionals” and email newsletters that had (in his opinion) spammed him. I don’t want to get into whether the punishment of such a public outing is fitting of the crime, but I will say this: If you’re on Anderson’s list, you can learn a lot from Darren and Julie at Capulet Communications.

That was the subject of my first appearance on the Lab with Leo, and at last I have the embeddable video of that conversation.

Mr. Laporte and I talk about how to set up a Google News Alert, as well as how to monitor tags and search within Technorati. (Scroll past the obligatory G4 Tech TV promo, if you prefer)

Big thanks to Ryan Yewell and the rest of the producers for having me on the show, and then even being kind enough to have me back!

Stay tuned for my second appearance, where we discuss using social media tools to market your business, including a discussion about Facebook profiles, apps and groups.

I’ve been pretty silent about it until now, but I was selected as one of the 50 bloggers to receive a Nikon D80 DSLR camera for a review period of six months. The camera arrived yesterday ( coincidentally on the same day as a scheduled Gastown Photowalk- photos below), and now I’m finally going public about my involvement.

I suppose it’s likely that I was chosen because of my photography hobby in part, but I assure you that nobody is expecting any photographic magic from me. It’s more likely that I was selected because I’ll take an active interest as much in the campaign as in the camera itself. Or maybe they just didn’t want the list too heavily stacked with talent .

I’ll go into my take on all of this in a second, but to avoid any confusion, here are the facts, as I understand them:

Nikon hired the MWW Group to create a blogger relations program that they’ve called “Picture This.”

50 bloggers were chosen, 48 (To date, 46) of whom opted to participate

The trial period is six months, after which the camera can be purchased (at a discount, with the funds going to charity), sent back or kept for an additional six months.

There is no obligation or even expectation to blog about it, the only rule being that if we choose to, we must disclose that we are part of the program. Already, there’s some controversy over the program, which critics say is unethical. They wonder how a blogger could possibly be objective with such a generous loan in the equation?

It’s possible that sending me a camera will make me go ga-ga and cause me to start singing the virtues of Nikon, sure. But that is why there is only one rule: that I disclose my involvement, so the reader can take my opinions and feedback with the proverbial grain of salt. This mandated transparency is what separates this campaign from many of the others that have been under fire for avoiding this extremely important factor. As always, it’s up to the readers as to whether anything that I write rings true for them, and as long as they have all the facts they can make an informed decision one way or another.

I suspect that the dissenters share this one in common with me; we both wish we’d thought of this campaign first. But whether I had been selected or not, I would agree that it is a great way to spread the word online and is perfectly legal and ethical. The only thing that is different in this case of this campaign is the middle man has been cut out. The middle man in this case being the MSM (main stream media).

This time, the consumers are having their say, and have been contacted directly for their opinion. This has rattled the feathers of a few PR types, mostly because the model that they’ve “always used” has been abandoned. After all, what kind of future is there for the PR industry if there’s no need to kowtow to the media anymore? We’ll have to address that one another day, but for an example of how to adapt, start reading this post again from the beginning.

Now that I have been completely up front about my involvement and my feelings about all of this, I can move on to why we’re here; the camera in question. But first, a few more short words about the campaign. The box arrived via courier, accompanied by a hand-written letter on Nikon letterhead from a Senior Director at MWW. In the letter, they offered to give me a walk through of the camera’s features at my convenience. Even if I were being extremely critical (which I often am of attempts at blogger outreach) I have yet to find fault with the way they’ve conducted themselves.

Now, the camera. As I mentioned, I am a bit of a hobbyist photographer, and I used to shoot sports on the weekends while still in high school and between semesters of college. Since getting a new Olympus Evolt E-500 for Christmas, I’ve been trying to relearn the art, this time in digital. So although I’m not completely uninformed, running out on a Photowalk with nary a clue as to how to use this new tool was an interesting adventure. I took a bunch of shots, and I published them in their unedited form, in a set made specifically for my involvement in the program (equal parts disclosure and evangelism). Check out my first attempts with the D80 on our Photowalk by clicking this image:

I will continue to disclose my involvement each time I blog about this subject, and the meta data on my Flickr photos is all the disclosure I feel is necessary as to what camera took what shots (including my webcam, we now have four cameras in the house).

I welcome all feedback in the comments below. There are obviously a number of differences of opinion on all of this, and I’d like to hear them all.

With Paul’s permission, I’m taking a conversation that we had via email (below), and re-publishing it here, edited for length.

Paul lives in the UK, where he says the new media phenomenon has yet to catch fire among the marketing community. There simply aren’t enough Pauls or Hughs to go around, it seems. Recently, Paul has found himself without employment, and has publicly blogged about his search, his struggle to find just the right fit, and the question of whether to publish one’s CV online.

Paul Fabretti

Paul’s Blending the Mix blog has always been a great read. Like me, Paul spent many months at the beginning reading, reflecting and commenting on the many new media marketing lessons published on the web each day, before beginning to publish his own original thoughts and ideas about marketing on the new web. All of this over a two year time span, give or take. In short, Paul gets it, and has had plenty of time to put much of “it” into practice. What’s more, he has a direct marketing background that helps him understand the dynamics of the old way of “pushing” information, and the new way of using information to “pull” visitors to you.

Since it hasn’t long since I was in a similar position as Paul, at the crossroads, I wanted to add some perspective for both him and his prospective employers about the value of what Paul already understands. And so begins a peek at our conversation:

Paul: In all honesty, most people I get interviewed by tell me I don’t have enough online experience. 2 years is nothing compared to most people I hear get interviewed so how do you show you have the knowledge without having anything to show for it?…How do you pitch what you do to clients by the way? How do you persuade the skeptics who think it is mumbo jumbo?

JB: To the sceptics who say two years is not enough, I say two years is an eternity in new media. How far have we come since we both starting blogging, etc? How much experience could one be expected to have in such a new and rapidly changing biz? Added: (Wanted: Facebook Apps Developer with 3-5 Years Experience! Joke stolen from kk+)

As for pitching clients, I sell them on what I know they want. Forget about the technology, the tools, the strategy, and first address this simple fact: The web allows them to put their already great (hopefully…) relationship building process online. And they can create and track word of mouth online, as long as they join the conversation with the best of intentions. Reaching more people, and creating lasting client relationships; that’s the return.

Web content is more important than ever, and if they have no strategy to manage it, they’ll get left behind. Years of experience managing “Web 1.0″ campaigns are less relevant, in my opinion.

Paul: You make a great point about a fast-changing environment providing little opportunity to gain experience. To be honest, I think it is one thing to use new tools (like blogging or twitter for example) but quite another and much more important, to understand how these tools should and should not be used for commercial purposes. I fear that the UK is not as aware of most of the tools I know and understand, and as such any experience i do have seems largely irrelevant! As you say, with new ideas cropping up all the time it is as crucial to keep track of it all. I also like your take on knowledge sharing on the net. There are always people out
there to share the knowledge and experience with.

JB: Paul, it sounds as though you’re in a perfect spot to help more companies discover this stuff, and your take on the fact that they are merely tools and not strategies will be infinitely helpful to the first smart employer who snatches you up.

It’s a shame that more companies in Paul’s neighborhood (Manchester) don’t already see the value in the kind of knowledge he possesses. Still, being the first with a great idea has its advantages.

Please join me in wishing Paul the best of luck in his search, and feel free to add your suggestions and comments to the discussion.

I’m pretty excited to report that Tell Ten Friends is in The Viral Garden’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs (Week 58)!
We’re just in, with our 521 links. Too bad we’re not measured by the links to the home page here: www.telltenfriends.com. To that address, we have 1091 links as of today on Technorati. Note to friends: link to the blog!

It’s great to be recognized, especially among so many other talented and insightful marketing thinkers.

Here’s a little link love for the list:

1 - Creating Passionate Users - 8,460
2 - Seth’s Blog - 8,452
3 - Gaping Void - 3,728
4 - Logic + Emotion - 1,406
5 - Daily Fix - 947
6 - Converstations - 914
7 - Drew’s Marketing Minute - 800
8 - The Viral Garden - 742
9 - Jaffe Juice - 736
10 - Church of the Customer - 710
11 - Diva Marketing - 706
12 - Duct Tape Marketing - 701
13 - Servant of Chaos - 671
14 - What’s Next - 666
15 - Influential Interactive Marketing - 651
16 - Hee-Haw Marketing - 648
17 - Brand Autopsy - 618
18 - Community Guy - 571
19 - Flooring the Consumer - 563
20 - CrapHammer - 560
21 - Customers Rock! - 547
22 - Shotgun Marketing - 534
23 - Coolzor - 532
24 - CK’s Blog - 525
25 - Tell Ten Friends - 521

Cheers!

Ever since I spotted my first Island Ink-Jet kiosk at Mayfair Mall in Victoria, BC, I’ve been taking my ink cartridges to Island Ink-Jet to be refilled.

Now living in Burnaby, I used to frequent the Metrotown Mall location, before it picked up and moved all the way to Langley. In my search for a new location, I found Nick; tucked into an upstairs corner at The Bay at Lougheed Mall on the border of Coquitlam, a full 12 minute drive from my home office.

Recently, my printer has been acting up, and finally my black ink cartridge started showing the caution symbol, a clear indication that it was time to make the trek to get it refilled. I took it to Nick, and later I was inserting it and printing a test page.

No ink! This, dear friends, was not good news. Back to Lougheed with me, and there’s Nick with a solution: pay the difference, and take an additional brand new cartridge, in case his re-setting of the existing one was to no avail. If this works, I thought- I’ll have two full cartridges! The celebration was short lived, as neither would put forth that precious ink I’ve come to depend on; except of course for dripping it all over my fingers as I fumbled with the cartridges.

Obviously, either I’m doing something horribly wrong, or my printer is faulty. I presume the latter to be true, and my 3-in-1 printer is now marked to become landfill fodder. (Anybody think they can resurrect it?) No matter, as after a quick call to Nick, he assured me that if I brought the (now used) cartridge back, I’d get a full refund.

For Nick’s sake and my own, I wish that I wasn’t still having difficulty with my printer- although my experience in dealing with him made me realize that his level of customer service was definitely worth mentioning. After dealing with me, Nick has nothing more than a used ink cartridge and ink on his own hands since I became his customer; due to the refund he has yet to make a penny off me.

But he has done one thing- he’s secured a faithful customer, who will willingly drive to Lougheed Mall for service that I know is worth the trip!

Great marketing is in those little details:

• Making decisions based on what’s good for the customer
• The “9th Refill free” cards for your wallet
• The small print-out featuring tips on how to preserve the environment through recycling cartridges that was stapled to the small baggie carrying my refill.

Thanks, Nick. I’ll back just as soon as my new printer needs fuel.

Be forewarned: My apologies for the number of times this item will appear in my feed over the next few weeks, more explanation below.

Update #1: In the spirit of full disclosure, I spent most of yesterday and today convincing myself that I didn’t have time to do any of this stuff, and then I realized how RIDICULOUS I sounded, and got down to it. This post is getting some traction, and I made a commitment. See new crossed-off items and notes below.

Update #2: After a busy week that included a PR campaign, I can cross off even more items. 

The Buzz Marketing Challenge

I’m incredibly late to the dance on this, but I couldn’t help but join in on the fun.

Ben Yoskovitz of the Instigator Blog is embarking on a buzz marketing project, pulled straight from the pages of Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing, by Ron McDaniel.

This concept is very much in line with what we do here at Tell Ten Friends, so not only did I think it would make a great blog post and experiment to share with readers, but it will also be good for business, and for generating buzz for our company.

The experiment itself consists of a checklist of ethical and effective activities to start a bit of buzz. No fanfare, no fluff, just good old fashioned conversation starting and web marketing; two of our favorite pastimes here are at TTF.

What follows is the list, with crosses through the activities I’ve been able to complete, and where applicable, a few short notes. In some cases, I have already done the activity several times over, (ie. Squidoo lens) but in the interest of the exercise, I’m making myself do them again.

I’ll update this several times over the next few weeks, hence the number of times it will be appearing in the feed.

Here’s the list of ways to generate buzz, copied directly from Ben:

1. Email an Old Friend or Acquaintance (It was great to catch up, Dan!)
2. Contact a Stale Connection
3. Email Extended Family (Annyong, Helen!)
4. Call Someone You Have Never Talked To
5. Congratulations Call or Note (haha, Rob)
6. Send a Surprise Letter
7. Any Day Card
8. Mail a News Clipping
9. Social Networking (got this one covered!)
10. Online Directory
11. Squidoo Expert Lens
12. Tag Your Website or Blog
13. Blog/Message Board Comment
14. Join/Participate in an Online Group
15. Talk to a New Person in Person
16. Contact a Reporter or Writer
17. Contact an Old Employer/Employee (Dom and Tony in one week!)
18. Customer Follow-up
19. Call/Email a Person You Respect
20. Mini Announcements
21. Digg Your Site
22. Flickr Fun
23. Personal Success Email List
24. Did You Know? - Trivia
25. Instant Messaging
26. Text Messaging
27. Email a Useful Link to Someone
28. Testimonials
29. Celebrate Success (Have a steak, has Howard says)
30. Write a Blog
31. Have a “Get To Know You” Meal
32. Host a Dinner Party
33. Arrange a Networking Lunch
34. Publish an Article
35. Meet More Neighbors
36. Send a Press Release
37. Give a Speech
38. Volunteer
39. Online Interview/Podcast (I swear, I’m getting to this!)
40. Conduct a Survey
41. Local Government Involvement
42. Open House
43. Interview a Leader
44. YouTube.com
45. Meet Business Neighbors
46. eNewsletter or Newsletter (I’m well over due here, too)
47. Produce an eBook (and here)
48. Nominate an Organization
49. Challenge a Coworker to a Buzz-Off (I challenge you all!)
50. Podcast Show
51. Host a Seminar or Training Session (more news on this one coming soon, right Jeremy?)
52. Unexpected Booth
53. Organize a Group
54. Become a Board Member
55. Conduct a Focus Group/Roundtable
56. Conduct a Customer Contest (I’ve got one of these in mind, too)
57. Organize a Charitable Event

I welcome any and all of you to join in with me, and share your experiences; either through comments, or as trackbacks from your own blogs. Some of this stuff isn’t easy, so don’t be surprised if months or even years later, the list still isn’t finished!

Any time something exciting happens as a result of one of the items on the list, I’ll publish it in a separate blog post.

We are growing in numbers. We are are extremely polite, almost to a fault. We say “eh” a lot, even if we try not to. We work in Marketing and Communications and we are…

Canada’s 1% Blogging Army.

We spread the word about new media marketing and PR tactics, and we evangelize the things we love. We get to know one another through generous linking to one another, and then of course, we say thank you. A lot.

Big thanks to Sean Moffitt for creating the list of 150 ‘MARCOM’ bloggers in Canada. It’s a great list, and one that I sure am proud to be part of. Click the image above the read the list over at Buzz Canuck.

Tag! I’m it.

Ben Yoskovitz shared his five things that the blogging community doesn’t know about him, and has chosen me as one of five people to continue to spread the meme. So here goes:

1. I can read Korean (phonetically, at least), even though I have no idea what I’m saying out loud most of the time. Try it for yourself; it only takes about three hours or so to learn.

2. I have a healthy dose of Acadian (Merci, Grandpa Arsenault) mixed in with my Irish and English heritage, mais mon francais n’est pas bon.

3. After college, I spent an entire calendar year as a bike courier in Victoria. Having my bike stolen from outside my friend Erik’s pizza shop was the beginning of the end of that memorable time for me, and was the wake up call I needed to start growing up.

4. My first name is actually Patrick, inherited from my father and his father before him and his father before him. And all of us first born sons, all with middle names starting with “J.” If you’re keeping track, that would make me Patrick Jordan Behan, and Patrick J. Behan IV.

5. Although I did play rep hockey up until Bantam, due to a late-blooming ability to skate well enough and a complete lack of “hands,” I had a much more successful career as a referee (even appearing in the stripes as a linesman for a game of Junior “A”) than I ever did as a player. Ask anyone who ever played hockey with me, and you won’t get much of a dispute on this point.

So there you are, five things that you didn’t know about me before that I am comfortable sharing with the ‘internets.’

Now, I want to find out five things about:

Jeremy Latham
Nathaniel Steven Henry Brown
James Sherrett
Linda Bustos (a hip noob)
Kris Krug

Last night I attended a “pre-launch” party at Sxip, for their new software program, Sxipper.

It’s an identity management app that makes logins and registrations easier and more secure by storing your encrypted contact information and passwords and auto-inputs it into pre-mapped forms and fields. Or something like that.

Rob and I arrived early, and we were in one of the first groups to sit down in an orientation (beers in hand, can’t forget to mention that) that in many ways resembled a focus group, although they insisted it was anything but. We were asked a series of questions about our browser usage, and how often we login or register for things online. The invite list consisted only of what they called “power users,” so the consensus was that we do it an awful lot. After answering a few questions about how much of a pain it is and how much we’d like to see it fixed, we were set free to mingle again; hot dogs, beer et al.

(Roland uploads his photos on the fly at the Sxipper pre-release party)

As neither Rob or I had brought our laptops, we weren’t able to install it on site and try it out. Instead we were treated to a projected demo, that scratched the surface of what Sxipper does.

From what I could see in the demo, it is something that I would use. Anything that makes my life easier and my data more secure is useful to me, as long as it is indeed easier.

We were specifically asked not to share screenshots of the program, so I can’t show you examples of Sxip’s hip (and very Apple/Fido-centric) interface. And it was also clear that the folks at Sxip didn’t want a flood of users crashing the gates right away, but were rather inviting a few local users to try it out, tell their friends to have a look, and let the buzz grow organically.

As for the event, it was a great. Lots of friendly and familiar faces, and it was neat to get a sneak-peek at a local software product that could just become a mainstay for the average user across many platforms. And the free beer and smokies must have worked, because here I am blogging about it.

For now, it’s optimized for use with Firefox and Safari (I think) and is still a sleeping giant. You can sign up to be the among the first to try Sxipper by signing up here. You can see a video by Roland Tanglao here.

tag: sxipper